http://twitter.com/Othar/statuses/5518668924

Othar: I have been charged with going into Castle Heterodyne and retrieving the Baron's son; Gilgamesh. Alive. Unharmed. Sane. Two out of three?

Thanks so much for all your continued support! ^_^ Best of luck to all bidding!

You Look Adorable

Busty Mom Hug

Making Do

Don't Let Go

Appropriately Immature

Trip to the Vet

Should All Blow Over

That's Not Fair

Get Inked

The Connection

Balance a Beer Bottle

Animal Control

We might be bouncing something this week because a check we were expecting regarding the house closing is coming in later than we expected. But you know what? It's not the end of the fucking world. I think about some of the places we've been in in the past, where bouncing or overdrafting would have started an avalanche that we had no hope of digging out from under. I can't even put into words how grateful I am to not be in that position anymore.

I always think of the time when I was pregnant with Holden, too sick to get out of the car, so I waited while Josh ran into the grocery store for a few things. While I was in the car, a lady knocked on my window and told me that the tire on my side had gone flat. My heart just SANK. On top of that, when Josh came out of the store he said our debit card was denied. I was 7 months pregnant, in a land where I knew no one but Josh. I don't remember how we got home, I do remember that we ate spaghetti with no sauce for dinner that night. It was all we had. I felt Holden moving in my belly and I do remember crying and rubbing my belly before I went to sleep, promising it would get better.

Somehow, we made it through that. It did get better.

I am grateful that right now, a $35 overdraft fee sucks, but it's not the line between eating and not eating. It doesn't mean we have to go without heat or through threat of an eviction. I don't have a kid in diapers anymore. I have a lot to be grateful for, and I just need to remember that.

Ugggghhhh. We're hoping that our household has been infected with only the 24-hour variety of "you might want to carry a bucket" virus. Thankfully, we've been able to endure via unconsciousness most of the day. We think we caught it from a wayward nephew, whose school informs us it's most likely something that'll keep us down for a day or so. In the meantime, I've discovered that I may need to invest in more comfy couches at some point. :)

But neither sickness nor sleet nor ion storm will keep me from my appointed blogging(eventually), so let's start off with Wil Wheaton sneaking into JJ Abrams' "Star Trek" movie. He did some voiceover work for one of the Romulans, which can be heard in this clip. I was also a little late to finding out about his role in "The Big Bang Theory," where one of the show's characters challenges him to and then plays against him in a Magic-like game.

Both TV series starting with "S" pleased me this week. "Supernatural" pulled out the tongue-in-cheek, trapping Winchester brothers in "TV Land." This could have been a disaster, but the actors and writers managed to make it quite fun. There was even an appearance of "Smeat," the Spam/Treet product that has made quite a number of appearances in other productions. The commercial for a "flare up" remedy was also a scream. In "Stargate: Universe," the show took an immediate up-tic the second someone claimed their name was "Philip Fry." Whoever is writing Eli's dialogue is doing a bang-up job. I'm not so sure about how the episode concluded (it seemed a little pat), but what concerns me is that the next episode appears to deal with time travel, which is almost always a bad sign.

"Flashforward" may have gotten to something the novel pointed out regarding the visions. Maybe. We'll see.

And the film "2012" is apparently going to continue on TV. This could be a solution to the "sequel problem" a lot of franchise seem to have. I mean, nothing's deader than being canceled on TV, right?

Lastly, we're coming up on the KC Game Fair, where not only will I be in attendance, I'll be selling off some of the geeky items I've collected over the years that are now taking up valuable person-space in our house. A lot of them are Star Trek: The Next Generation toys, including the shuttlecraft Goddard and the Transporter playset, among other things.

So while I go see if I can face a bowl of chicken broth, here's some items of potential interest:

- Because I love how MST3K will usually have someone call out "and we have a title" whenever a character in a movie says the name of the movie, I really dig this compilation of title utterances in films.
- Reminding me of all those old Sears toy catalogs from days of yore, here's a list of the most popular Christmas toys since 1960 to the present.
- "Red Storm" is a mech game along the lines of "Smash TV," with upgrades and explosions a-plenty.
- I wish this thing had been invented when I was working in an office with a community fridge.
- Will Smith and Columbia pictures are making a Risk movie. What could go wrong?
- Anyone out there writing a ghost story? Here are 10 consistent story elements to tales of the ectoplasmic.
- Activision hired a private investigator to take down a thief selling hot copies of 'Mondern Warfare 2' along with one of the buyers who wanted to make illegal copies for sale. Hmm... sounds like the plot of a video game, maybe? :)
- This game has a marvelously "hand made" look to it: How My Grandfather Won The War. Navigate your plane past obstacles, or "splat" them with paint to render them harmless.
- Lastly, a preview of Prep & Landing, one of the first new holiday specials I've seen since I wore footy-pajamas.

While I am still here and am not abandoning LJ at all, I know that many of you are either transitioning or have transitioned largely to other blogging areas on the "tubes."

For the record: I'm also on Facebook under "James Hussiere" for those who wanna connect there, too. I'd hunt you all down, but this being the Internet, I'm not sure I have real names or alternate ID's for most of you. Now you have mine, if you are interested.

Edit: I think I posted the wrong ID months ago, but I am also "DocJamez" on XBOX.

- James -

...wait, was that a door creaking? Nope, must have just been my back, or hip or... hey, where's my Metamucil? ;-)

http://twitter.com/Othar/statuses/5486974139

Othar: I don't remember much about Grantz capturing me. It was fast, confusing and rather unsporting. Probably a perfect job in her eyes. Now what?

Okay, for all you bumper-sticker political people out there, here's a little elementary social science for you:

The President doesn't make the world go around.

The President can't wave a magic wand and make unemployment go up or go down; the President can't make the economy boom or bust.

While we're at it, the President can neither turn the country into an ultraconservative science-hating theocracy, nor a socialist police state.

The President is not a magical king who makes the sun shine and the birds sing if he's a Good King or turns the world into a wasteland if he's a Bad King.

While I'm on the topic, here's another bit of elementary social science for you: the majority of the country is neither right-wing nor left-wing. It may drive you nuts that not everybody is a howling monkey about politics the way you are, but it's reality and you're going to have to come to grips with it. More people base their vote on the person than they do the ideology behind it. Still more people base their vote on what they think other people are going to vote. It's completely stupid and irrational. But that's the human race for you.

The country didn't "move to the left" in 2008, nor did it "move to the right" in 2009. The country's exactly in the same place it always is.

The American political scene actually has an extremely narrow range of views that it will actually tolerate. The right wing thinks it's too far to the left. The left wing thinks it's too far to the right. Most people just want to live their lives already. All the shrieking, name calling, and general snark doesn't do anything except get people more entrenched in their blinder-vision. And in the long run, that's much, much more harmful to the nation than anything either major political party will ever be able to make fly in Congress.

So, to put it bluntly, if you can't keep yourself civil, SHUT THE #&$** UP. Seriously. Take whatever political stance suits you; by all means, campaign, pound the pavement, vote for what you believe in. BUT STOP BEING SUCH A BUNCH OF JERKS ABOUT IT. YOU'RE HURTING THE COUNTRY YOU CLAIM TO LOVE.

-The Gneech

PS: Comments screened. Not in the mood to put up with nonsense.

Via Mothering Magazine:

New Moon Girl Media's mission is to help girls, ages 8 to 12, discover their unique voices and express them in the world in ways that matter. Through active girl involvement and participation, they provide respectful, creative, energetic and safe communities where girls explore, discover, create, grow and share their voices to make a positive difference in their lives and in the world.

You won't find diet advice or popularity contests at New Moon Girls. The magazine is 100% advertising-free and dedicated to helping girls discover and honor their true selves. Created by girls, for girls, every issue is pure inspiration. Unfortunately, it may not be able to continue. Joe Kelly sent out a heartfelt letter today. Please do what you can to help.

From Joe:

You know how crucial it is to empower today's girls with healthy, positive media--alternatives to the toxic media drenching our daughters.   New Moon Girls online community and magazine gives girls ages 8 and up a safe, exciting, supportive space to express themselves and hear from other girls around the world. Girls who could be the next Courtney Martin (a finalist this week in Washington Post's America's Next Great Pundit contest) whose first article was published in New Moon when she was a girl, 14 years ago.

Sadly, this will all end on 12-31-09 without your help.

New Moon has had a tough year like many other businesses. Even with a lot of effort, we haven't succeeded in bringing in additional investors this fall, and it's time to add a new strategy to keep New Moon alive. We have until Dec 31 to reach monthly break-even so that New Moon can grow in the future.

Have we tightened our own belts?  You betcha! Right now our monthly expenses are 65% less than they were a year ago.  But we still have a gap of $7500 a month to break-even.  The good news is that with your help we can close this gap.  The gap amounts to only 250 additional orders a month @ $29.95.

You can help by:

• Sponsoring memberships for libraries, schools and programs serving low-income girls. It's quick and easy to sponsor one, ten or 100 girls - every dollar matters!
• Buying memberships for all girls 8-14 that you know. Our holiday special saves you 50% after the first order.
• Telling everyone what you value about New Moon.  Link to us, and follow us on Facebook and Twitter and share with your FB friends and Tweeps.

Please act today so the media universe for girls won't be totally dominated by Stardoll.com, Seventeen magazine, and worse.

With your help to sponsor memberships for non-profits and to give New Moon as gifts, we can continue to ensure a media that lifts girls' aspirations, increases their power, and gives them an outlet for their unique perspectives and voices.  I'm sending this email to everyone I know and asking you to do the same.

Also, if you (or someone you know) would like to learn more about becoming an investor in New Moon, contact Nancy Gruver: nancyg@newmoon.com.

All the best,
Joe

Surely if it's too early for Christmas decorations, it's too early for "I hate Christmas" posts. :P

-The Gneech

PS: Just to be clear, I'm not complaining about Christmas or Christmas decorations. Those are fine. I'm complaining about holiday haters. ;P

You've all been patiently waiting, now here it is!  Pre-order yours now at the introductory price of $44.95!  After the pre-order is complete, the price will go up to $52!  Order yours TODAY!



Thanks much for all your support! ^_^

Still sick, but getting better. It's been 2 weeks now. I'm about to take a nap because my woo woo cough syrup is kicking in, so if I start to make no sense, you will know why.

Holden got the H1N1 vaccine at school yesterday. I wasn't going to have him get it, but we didn't have much time to think about it, and since he usually gets SO SICK in the winter we figured it would be okay. He had a tiny reaction to it last night, slight fever and tummy issues, but he was fine this morning. I just hope we made the right decision.

There is some miscommunication going on between me and my ex-girlfriend J right now and it is really stressing me out. We had been back in contact for a couple months or so, emailing every day, catching up and being sweet and nostalgic. It's been nice to walk down memory lane, but somehow she missed a message I sent through facebook and thought I was ignoring her so now she is all pissed, and I thought SHE was ignoring ME so I was just letting it go, and now I'm worried she won't get the messages I sent explaining what happened. Well, whatever. Hopefully it gets cleared up. We didn't talk for ten years, I'll live. I just hate it when people are mad at me when I didn't do anything wrong!

It snowed last night. I need to figure out what the hell I am going to do with my car. It's just sitting there with its rusted parking brake cable and I was hoping to get that fixed before it gets buried under snow for 5 or 6 months, but AAAGH all this other stuff going on with the house and being sick for 2 weeks and whatnot... I just want my car back, man. My neighbor did the front brakes and rotors for me, we gotta take care of the parking brake issue though because as of now we can't even move the fucking thing. I hate paying 300 bucks a month for a car I can't even use right now.

OH, my dad may have another job around the first of the year (I don't know if I posted about it but last month he was let go from his job from the Jaguar dealership he had been the parts manager for for 22 years), so that's cool. There's a new Lexus dealer opening up in Escondido and since he's been in the business so long, he's known the lady in charge for years and she really likes him so hopefully it will work out for him. We haven't always had the best relationship, but I love my daddy and I've been really worried for him since he was laid off.

Hope everyone is doing well. My eyes are starting to float around so I guess it's time to go rest.

( I just read this from the White-Wolf website: )

So if this is the case, I will be very excited. The reason why I left the cam club in the first place was because of A)Lack of local games and B)Did not like most of the new world. Right now I own a LARP company, and also run a second game... but if other people in the area actually took the initiative to start up the old domain I know that not only would I go... but I would bring other people with me.

We actually need people who are willing to do the jobs instead of just collecting prestige, however.

From MonteJCook: 911 Writer's Block

-The Gneech

http://www.inhislikeness.com/2009/11/06/695/

http://www.inhislikeness.com/?p=907

Two things about micro-story:
1 - Just because Devil can look like a red dot DOES NOT mean he was the red dot from when they went to Japan. it’s just coincidence.
2 - I think I could have done another two strips of just Baron taking off hats to reveal other ones. I have to move towards the end though. Ah well, maybe another day.

That having been said - it’s time to announce - IN HIS LIKENESS GOES PROFESSIONAL’ER!

Basically, this past year has been a rough one creatively for me, where the year before was a rough one in almost every other aspect ever. I recognized that Sugoicon was the end of my convention year (a light convention year at that) and I knew that it would blow my doors off. It did just what I needed it to do. I know you guys support IHL and me and all my merriness. I needed to see fans, and friends, and colleagues. I needed to be engulfed by the things that make me love doing the OTHER aspects of IHL. The panels and the conventions and stuff.

So I did - and it was grand.

So instead of me going and coming back with ideas for books and TPBs and all of these fantastic things that make a good webcomic turn into a possible financial stream - I came back with something better. A plan. With the plan, I’ll hopefully be able to take the creative drought of the last year and move into a more professional stage in my life when it comes to IHL. Of course nothing will change if all you do is read IHL and enjoy it. What will be changing is EVERYTHING ELSE. Starting with some small projects like the weird problem of the site loading slow occasionally due to some bad code at the bottom. Next is some production issues I need to fix (such as the new button maker I just bought!). Then the IHL Store which is… less than superb.

Altogether, these goals are huge, but the biggest part of the plan is to do them all in small bite size chunks so I don’t overwhelm myself - which I’m prone to doing.

Thanks for listening, see ya Sunday… or Monday.. remember, bite size fixes.